Well, I Wonder...

Are all health-food stores connected to New Age "healing" emporiums? If so, what is the common denominator - aging hippies who decide to go into business?

Just wondering here, as there seems to be a pattern.

Just so you know, I am not one of the organic-soy-locally-grown-gluten-free-pro biotic-free-range fanatics. I have neither the time, budget, nor energy to obsess over these things, but I'm all for common sense when it comes to health, nutrition, and what we feed our kids. Read: fruit good. Twinkies bad. Shop at Market Basket; buy what's on sale; in and out in 45 minutes. However, intrigued by how the other half lives, (that would be the homeschooling, bread-baking mamas from my church), I thought it would be kinda fun to learn how to bake bread. (Besides, high fructose corn syrup is demonic, and they put it in bread. !!!)

My first efforts were pathetic. No one told me that salt kills yeast, nor do I recall that being mentioned in college chemistry. Unperturbed, I persevered and have managed to crank out a few pretty good loaves; although a bit dense. Turns out you have to add vital gluten to whole wheat flour to make it rise, and a dash of lecithin doesn't hurt, either.

Turns out you can only get vital gluten at your local health food store, with names involving the word "earth" in the title.

Works for me; I was, as luck would have it, out of court by 11:00 this morning. So off to the hippie-granola health food store I go, for the first time in my adult life.

They have cool stuff. Lots of gluten-free, wheat-free flour ( a godsend for peeps with allergies); organic veggies; herbal supplements galore. I got the gluten, picked up some raw honey for my husband, and went home to play with my new bread machine. But not without grabbing a few brochures on my way out.

Upstairs from this friendly food store, turns out the same company runs a "holistic" center, offering reiki, Ayurveda massage, clairvoyant readings, crystal energy balancing, Brennan energy healing, and things of that nature. Check out this page from the website on "Readers, Mediums, and Clairvoyants".  What any of this occultic and pseudo-esoteric stuff has to do with organic kale and red quinoa is beyond me, but a quick Internet search indicated this type of connection is pretty common.

Another "holistic" health center in the area with a similar "menu" of Eastern healing also has chiropractic services, a legitimate medical practice. My muse on the way home was this: if a Christian patronizes such an establishment, say for a facial, back adjustment, or box of vital wheat gluten, what is the moral implication? As far as I know, all the fundie mamas buy their funky bread ingredients there. If I noticed the New Age adverts (they didn't exactly try to hide their agenda), I'm sure those sharp homeschoolers do, too.

It's late and this is just an off-the-cuff post. I wonder if any "Christian" health food markets exist, which don't offer to "re-align [my] chakras using many different crystals and stones". I don't quite get the connection between organic veggies and all this weirdness....

Musings from the Landscape of Church Sub-culture

My 6-year-old son got to select a prize from the AWANA store the other night for memorizing Bible verses. (For the uninitiated and you non-fundies, AWANA is an evangelical Bible club for kids).

He came home from church with a missile launcher. (Now that's a sentence I've never typed before). For some reason, I find this hilariously ironic. How often do you see rocket launchers at church, even if they're only Nerf? I went to a church once where the nursery director wouldn't let my son walk in with a (mostly-empty) water gun, because it was such a non-Christian influence.

Our church gives out missile launchers. Interesting.

***
There is something in evangelical circles that makes people vaguely uncomfortable with women who are actually pretty sharp theologically. They don't know what to do with them, so they invite them to join committees. There seems to be an unwritten assumption that "serving in ministry" means you would love to do the flower arrangements for the ubiquitous "Ladies Luncheons". That is, when you're not busy homeschooling your kids and making pie crusts from scratch.

I am not that woman, not even a little bit. I guess that's okay since my husband doesn't really like pie anyway.

***

I received the following comment from a well-known Christian literary agency the other day:

"My colleagues and I agreed that your writing is absolutely refreshing. You have honed your craft to a level that most writers, unfortunately, do not reach. Marie, you also bring a unique perspective to a growing bookshelf of ideas about how Christians should view addiction recovery and counseling. Your perspective is extremely conservative, in a vein with which we would identify ourselves. We like your approach and we like your book idea."

I appreciated the feedback, and was pretty pumped.

***
Is it just me, or are some Reformed Christian authors just too darned Reformed for their own good? Don't get me wrong; the Reformers were the heroes of the faith who rescued biblical Christianity from the mysticism and superstition of the Dark Ages. Currently,the Reformed camp has and is producing FAR better quality writing than most of their brethren (the sort Phil Johnson labels "evangellybeans"), but sometimes in the quest for doctrinal precision and endless parsing, the relational aspect of Christ's love is lost. Taking an extreme position on the Doctrines of Grace can leave one scratching one's head.

For example, and I'm not naming names here, a couple of my favorite homeboys state that when sharing the Gospel with a potential convert, one should never tell him that "Christ died for [his] sins because you have no way of knowing if that individual is one of the elect or not." Um......alrighty then. So...what exactly should we tell him? "Hey! I have great news! Christ might have died for your sins!"

Doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?

Jesus looked at the Rich Young Ruler (Mark 10:20-22), loved him, and bid him come and follow Him. And the guy still walked away (which I find staggering). Repeatedly, we see that the invitation is open to all...we all have a chance to be one of "the elect".

Some folks seek to be more Calvinistic than Calvin.

Or take my recent example, of how having a high view of God precludes focusing on our own "felt needs", and that it is blasphemous to think in terms of OUR own value. I get that we are totally depraved, and the Atonement speaks of HIS infinite worth, glory and value....but...several places in Scripture, God's Word indicates that we are precious to Him. If we were truly worthless to God, He never would have sent His Son. I can see where there's a danger to making the Cross all about us, rather than about God (and people do), but even the Puritans recognized Christ's love for the individual.

I agree God does not exist to meet our emotional needs, but whaddya do when you have a tough day? Or do Reformed peeps never have a tough day? I'd rather pour my heart out to God than post about it on Facebook, as some folks do. Sometimes, after reading about the proper view of God, I actually have a tough time praying. I find it intimidating and don't really know what to talk about....so I wind up on Blogger instead. The Reformers themselves were passionate, emotional, introspective people. Sometimes in today's literary Reformed camp, one can learn much but feel nothing. One believer I know wrote: "I loved Reformed people, but I loath their "We are the Christian Intellectual Elite" complex. When Christianity is all head and no heart... yep, the balance is lost."

Yep, indeed. Let's make sure it's Jesus Christ we're worshipping, and not John Calvin.

Random Thoughts and Scattered Sharing...

"The believer is unspeakably precious in the eyes of Christ, and Christ is unspeakably precious in the eyes of the believer."~Robert Murray M'Cheyne (quoted over at Puritan Fellowship, which has some wonderful material arguing against an extreme application of Limited Atonement from historical Christianity). Kevin, your sermons and the excerpts you post are a real blessing to many of us.

***
Like this gem from Spurgeon on the love of Christ and abiding in Him. Well done.

***

Ha! This morning's patient just canceled at work. Thus I can stay home and blog, send my proposal to agents....and maybe, just maybe, wash the kitchen floor. Oh, the joy.

***
I need snow tires. Like now. It's mid-November, and in New England, that's really living on the edge with bald tires.

***

To answer the question 3 of you e-mailed me about: NO. I am NOT the same Theogeek who is on Twitter. Different person. I have 2 blogs, 2 e-mails, a Facebook account, a job and 4 kids. Twitter is the one thing I don't do (but I'm sure with a name like that, he/she has some interesting Tweets).

***

To my faithful reader in Colorado, who visits every day, wouldn't it be easier to just bookmark my blog? That way you wouldn't have to search "Theogeek" every time. Glad you're here and enjoying my posts. :)

***

Here's a great idea for making Christmas more meaningful, especially if you have kids: The Salvation Army Online Giving Tree, hosted by JC Penney. You don't have to do this through a church/group program to participate. All you have to do is click on the link, enter your zipcode and e-mail, and choose a needy child by age and gender from your local Salvation Army's online registry. You will see his or her gift needs - usually a warm winter jacket; boots; a toy - and you will receive an e-mail with the child's identity number and address of the Salvation Army office where you may bring the donation.

For those who don't care to go to the mall, you can shop online - and JC Penney provides FREE SHIPPING if you purchase gifts from their site. However, this is a cool way to get your own children excited about Christmas - by involving them. Choose a child the same age and sex as your own child(ren), then bring them to the store with you. Let THEM pick out the gifts, and make a personal Christmas card for their "Angel Tree" friend.

My kids have been bugging me about going shopping, and it's not even Thanksgiving yet. It's gratifying to see your children excited about surprising someone else for the holiday! The deadline for gift drop-offs is December 14th, I believe.

***
I wish I had more time to read Ed Buckley's "Why Christians Can't Trust Psychology". I quoted him several times in my own book, but getting through the entire book seems to elude me. I have the attention span of a gnat. Hey - maybe I have Adult Onset Attention Deficit Disorder! Yeah, that must be it.

***
One of the things I love most about God, on top of everything else I love about Him, is that He forgives instantly and repeatedly upon repentance of the believer. The tenderness of His love cuts right through the shame and the hardness that comes from self-righteousness. It's human nature to want to "run and hide", but His Holy Spirit invariably calls to mind a verse, a passage, a specific incident from Scripture that speaks directly to the sinner's current predicament.

***
Difficult, unsaved relatives who you are dreading seeing during the holidays? Remember, the Lord Jesus had dinner with Pharisees who invited Him. It may be a challenge, but Christ wants you to go. He is faithful and will provide ample opportunities for you to be salt and light. (Psst...don't take the bait when they try to put you on the spot for being a Christian.) If you get into an apologetics debate, be sure you have the goods to back it up...just do so lovingly. Neil's blog has some great resources to help you brush up if need be, but most importantly stay in the Word and pray for those "Pharisees" in your life who are perishing.